156 North American Forests and Forestry 



in silvicultural operations is higher than it is in 

 Germany or France. Just how much higher, it 

 does not matter for our purposes. But American 

 labor is more effective than European. In nearly 

 all industries it is a well-known fact that a work- 

 ingman in the United States accomplishes more 

 work in the same time than his fellow in Europe. 

 There is no reason to doubt that the same rule will 

 hold good in forestry work. In addition, we may 

 count on the usual labor-saving devices, as soon as 

 Yankee ingenuity has been turned upon silvicul- 

 tural problems. Consequently we may expect a 

 counter-weight to the apparently greater cheapness 

 of European labor. In another regard we have the 

 advantage of Europe. That is the value of the 

 land. Five dollars an acre is considered a pretty 

 high price to pay for timber-land in the United 

 States, while immense tracts can be had for far less 

 than that. In Central Europe values are very 

 much higher, if we except mountainous regions 

 where forests are maintained less for the revenues 

 they will yield than for the indirect benefit to be 

 derived from them. It is plain, therefore, that 

 there can be little, if any, difference in the average 

 cost of maintaining forests for continuous crops in 

 the United States and Central Europe under the 

 same system of management. But can the Euro- 

 pean forester expect a substantially higher return 

 from forests grown under approximately similar 

 conditions ? 



This question must be answered principally with 



